Nucleic acid analysis is important in many research and medical diagnostic fields.
Often analysis of amplified nucleic acid involves running the amplified product on gels to determine whether particular products have been amplified. Amplified products, such as those obtained from PCR reactions, are typically loaded and electrophoretically resolved on agarose or polyacrylamide gels.
Analysis after electrophoresis typically involves staining the gel with a fluorescent dye, such as ethidium bromide, which intercalates with double stranded DNA. The gel is then subjectively analyzed by a human, who must guess at relative band intensities and distances against a background fluorescence in the non-DNA portion of the rest of the gel. Such subjective analysis is often subject to human error, and increases the time required for analysis as the technician records the results of each reaction manually.